A Dozen Tries Scored against Salisbury

Chippenham performed a convincing win in front of a home festive crowd, putting 12 tries past next best in the table Salisbury - Report from Dan Carter

Back in Black (and white), the Chippenham squad performed a convincing win in front of a home Holly Jolly festive crowd, putting 12 tries past next best in the table, Salisbury. Carrying on from where they left off at Royal Wootten Bassett, crisp handling, clinical timing and confident carrying meant that Chippenham secured their 10th try bonus point of the season, and therefore the full 5 points from the game.

After the Under 12s’ 60 point to 10 victory over their Salisbury counterparts in the first match of the day, pressure was on the bigger boys (most of the time anyway) to reproduce said excitement in the second of the CRFC - Salisbury Double header matches.

A frantic first 10 minutes resulted in three early tries for the home side: a trademark show and go from Jacob Unwin; a brilliant, rapid reload, team try utilising the whole width of the pitch finished by winger-turned-flanker-turned-winger, Matt Dickens; and a neat though reused move off the back of a scrum, resulting in a walk in for other winger, Dan Carter.

Wanting to continue the pressure exerted in the previous phases, Chippenham continued to work, though this time against a much more organised defence. They spent the next 8 minutes predominantly with the ball in their hands, starting deep in their own half. With the patience of a Saint, Chippenham marched slowly but surely up the pitch and, after a brilliant outside arc by Hooker Aaron Clark - reeling in the Salisbury winger in the process - Matt Dickens went over for his second and an early bonus point try. Following that, a similar level of clinical patience and a swerving run from Matt Bye nearly resulted in a five-pointer for the Lock if it wasn’t for a last ditch Salisbury tackle, though a selfless passback enabled quick recycling - of which the council would be proud of - for blindside Flanker, Andy Rossiter to claim the points instead. A cagey 15 minutes ensued with the team in green eventually going over for their first of the day after a few sharp offloads. The away team couldn’t bask in glory for too long though, as soon after, a rampaging 5 metre scrum rolled over the Salisbury try line for Chippenham’s 6th and final try of the half. After touching that final try down, skipper Sam Saunders led his boys back to the changing room for their half time chat.

The message: more of the same please, boys! Five minutes in and the scoreboard operators were back in action: a mid air rip from winger Dickens and a 40 metre dash, with a highly commended dive at the end of it meant he picked up his hat-trick try! Shortly after, following one ruck and a mid-field miss-pass, was a brilliant run up the right-hand-side 15 metre channel. Outside Centre, Sean Johnson took the ball on the drift creating a sublime under arm switch with Fullback Will Waddington, who took the ball into the opposition 22 offloading inside to winger Carter, who in turn gave a low offload back into Johnson, who did well to recover the ball and to finish his deserved first try of the season!

Certain Christmas jumper wearers chanted for Fly Half, Dan Wainwright’s first First team appearance, and their calls were soon answered. To avoid absolute chaos on the pitch, it was sensible that the third Dan: Keat - who was dominating scrum time with fellow prop Chaz Newman and hooker Clarke - came off at the same time.

Long periods of Salisbury pressure meant the Chippenham defence eventually cracked enabling the away team to get their second of the game with more great offloads. There was no Chippenham response so the South Wiltshire team capitalised and scored after a fantastic backline switch slipping through the Chippenham drift defence easily.

Ensuring no surprises, Chippenham fought to regain their stranglehold they had in the first half. And, after a shimmering break by Waddington down the centre of the field and quick ball recycling by scrum-half Tom Fogarty, debutant Wainwright placed the ball over the try line in the right corner, to the crowd’s delight! Not quite as graceful was the other Dan’s second try whose “dive” looked more like a Hump Back’s breach on Blue Planet! Following that, Captain Saunders finished off some more rapid reloads from the forwards with his second try of the day under the posts. And finally, a 2 on 1 was finished by eventual man of the match Waddington, scoring in the right hand corner.

CRFC Twitter maestro, Matthew Stephen was kept very busy throughout the day given Chippenham’s 12 try effort. Those, combined with Scrum Half Fogarty’s conversion attempts left the final score at 70 points to 19. Recently crowned Volunteer of the Year, Richard Phillipps had to give out twice the amount of high-fives and fist bumps to compensate for the drastic score line.

Next week Chippenham travel to 11th placed Swindon for another local head to head. Looking to carry on this growing run of form, players and fans alike can’t wait to find out what the Chippenham squad have up their sleeve next.......